Ex-manager of Britney Spears says he was punched

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Britney Spears' ex-manager described from the witness stand Wednesday a scene of domestic warfare, saying the superstar's father chased him around a kitchen, punched him and threatened his life.

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Sam Lutfi, who is suing Spears' parents for defamation, testified while they watched from across the courtroom.

He denied accusations made in a book by Lynne Spears that he was a Svengali who became the gatekeeper of her daughter's world, locking her parents out of her life.

He contends he was a benevolent caretaker who protected Britney during her highly publicized meltdown.

Lutfi told of days leading to Britney's hospitalization at a psychiatric unit, and jurors saw a video of the star ordering him around outside her home hours before she was taken away.

She was demanding that he let her drive her car and told him to get in the passenger seat. The scene outside her home was surreal, with TV lights and paparazzi surrounding her.

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Lutfi said Britney feared her father, Jamie Spears, and fled her home when she heard he was coming. Lutfi said the father confronted him twice and punched him on the second visit.

"Jamie came barging into the house. He lunged at me and chased me around the kitchen island. He was spitting, yelling, shouting at me, and said I had hurt his daughter and he was going to beat the hell out of me and I'd better get out of the house," Lutfi testified.

After 10 minutes, he said, Jamie Spears was escorted out by security guards. But the next morning, he got into the house again and the battle resumed, Lutfi said.

"He cornered me in the kitchen, punched me in the solar plexus and threatened to kill me," Lutfi testified.

"How did it feel?" asked his attorney, Joseph Schleimer.

"It hurt," Lutfi replied.

Asked what he did, he said, "I ran to the game room and locked myself in."

A lawyer for Spears said in opening statements that the father never physically assaulted Lutfi and merely touched him on the chest.

With Schleimer reading excerpts from Lynne Spears' book, Lutfi methodically denied every one of her accusations.